This is a basic introduction to the Apple operating system Mac OS X.
Goals
Upon completion of this training, you will be able to:
Start Your Mac
Recognize Your Desktop
Find Applications
Use some other tips and tricks
Training
Turn your Mac on
To turn your Mac on, press the power button. The power button looks like this: image source:
On an iMac, the power button is located on the back of the computer. On a MacBook, it is on the top right of the keyboard.
Once your computer turns on, you will see an Apple logo. After a while, you will be presented with the login window.
Log in
To log in, click your username. Then type your password and click Log In (or press Enter). After a moment you will see the Desktop.
The Desktop
The Desktop is the name for what you see on your screen right now: the menu bar at the top, the Dock at the bottom and various icons in between.
The Desktop can also mean the actual folder stored at /Users/yourname/Desktop, which contains the icons you see on your screen.
The Dock
The Dock, located at the bottom of your screen, is intended to be a shortcut to the Finder and your most frequently used applications, folders and files.
On the left side of the Dock is the Finder (blue smiling icon) and applications. (more on that later)
On the right side of the Dock is the Trash and a place to store your favorite documents and locations.
To open something in the Dock, click its icon once.
To remove something, drag it away from the Dock - don't worry, you're just removing the shortcut.
To add something to the Dock (an application or file, for instance), drag it to the Dock.
You can also rearrange the icons in the Dock by dragging them left and right relative to each other.
To make the Dock larger or smaller, drag the vertical divider line up or down - the students love to do this in the lab!
The Menu Bar
The menu bar is located at the top of your screen and is a typical place to perform actions in various applications. The menu bar contains menus for the active application. The menu bar also contains a few icons on its right side that represent menus for other features on your Mac, such as Spotlight and sound volume.
Apple Menu– The Apple Menu, located in the upper-left corner of the screen contains many frequently used commands and actions.
System Preferences – Using System Preferences you can let your Mac know how you prefer to work. This is done through preferences.
Recent Items – Recent Items stores your 10 most recently used applications, documents and network locations for easy access.
Force Quit – If an application freezes, you can often force it to quit using this item. You will lose any unsaved work. Click and hold the frozen application icon; you will then be prompted to select “force quit.”
Sleep - Puts your computer into a low-power mode but does not turn off your computer. Waking your computer from sleep is much faster than turning on from a shut down’; you can get back to your work faster if you use sleep mode. However, the computer still uses some power in this mode.
Log Out - Closes all applications and takes you back to the login window. This prevents anybody from tampering with your files while you are gone.
Shut Down Turns your computer completely off.
Restart Turns your computer off then back on again. Often, a restart is necessary after installing system software updates or major applications.
Application Menu – The Application menu displays the name of the application you are currently in. When no other applications are open (or if you've clicked outside the application), for instance, it says Finder – The Finder lets you organize, view and access practically everything on your Mac including applications, files, folders, discs, SD memory cards and shared drives on your network.
File – In most applications the file menu contains commands to open, close, save and print documents
Save (1st time saving and naming something) vs.Save As (saving an altered version of something while keeping the original)
Edit – The edit menu usually contains the Undo, Cut, Copy and Paste commands.
Go – It’s a quick way of accessing Applications, Network devices, Desktop and Utilities.
Other menus – Other menus vary by application. Poke around in them to discover new features and menu items!
Status menus to note
The status menus are small icons on the right-hand side of the menu bar. McAfee
This red shield icon shows that you have anti-virus software running Home Sync
For use with a Mobile Account - talk to your Tech person about this one Binoculars
These change when someone from the tech office is accessing your computer (ie, to walk you through an answer or a fix) Display Settings
Changes the way your display looks Bluetooth
For connecting to Bluetooth devices AirPort
Shows your connection to wireless networks and the strength of your signal Volume
This menu allows you to adjust the volume of your Mac’s speakers. Battery
Can show percentage left or time remaining Clock
The clock displays the current time. Click for the date. Spotlight
The magnifying glass icon allows you to search your entire computer for various files and information. Simply click on the icon and type what you’re looking for. It will search many different kinds of files and present you with the most relevant results. Very helpful when you can't remember where you saved something!
Application Tour
Now let’s go on a brief tour of the applications in your Dock, at the bottom of the screen. We will start with the Finder on the left side.
Finder
The Finder is the application that allows you to deal directly with files, folders, CDs, network volumes and the icons on the Desktop. To open a Finder window, click on the Finder icon in the Dock.
Parts of a window
Title bar – Contains the name of the current folder (Finder) or document (other applications)
Buttons in the upper-left corner – Close, Minimize and Resize the window - none of these buttons will quit an application. The yellow button is great for making a window fit after connecting to the projector.
Button in the upper-right corner – Show/hide toolbar.
Tab in lower-right corner – Resize the window by dragging this tab.
Any “metal” looking surface – Drag here to move the window.
The Finder window also contains these items:
Back/forward buttons – Navigate to the last or next place you’ve been.
View buttons
Icon view – Displays the contents of your folder as a series of icons. Familiar view carried over from OS 9.
List view – Displays your folder in a spreadsheet-style manner; good for sorting by particular attributes of files, like putting recently modified files at the top of the list.
Column view – Displays the hierarchy of your hard disk where each column represents a folder. Most efficient way to drill down through folders.
Cover Flow view – Displays the contents of your folder just like the Cover Flow used in iTunes.
Eyeball icon - allows you to preview a document or file without having to open it
Action menu– Same options you would get if you right-clicked/control-clicked on a file. It gives you a quick access to Finder functions for highlighted items, such as Get Info, Move to Trash and Services.
Get Info – Show information about the selected file or folder.
Compress – Compress selection into a ZIP archive. (Useful for emailing folders.)
Labels – Color-code files and folders. Useful for organizing.
Other Places of Interest in the Finder
Macintosh HD – The hard drive, which stores all your files and folders.
The Desktop – Use this for temporary storage. Avoid clutter! Disks, network drives and other volumes appear here.
Home folder – This is your folder. All your documents and data should be stored in here. Nobody else can access it without your password.
Applications – All applications are in this folder. If you don’t see an application in the Dock, check here.
Documents – Save all your files in here whenever possible.
Trash – Located at the right-hand side of the Dock, this is where you put files and folders you don’t want anymore. Like a real trash, it should be emptied regularly. To do this select Empty Trash from the Finder menu.
Safari or Firefox
Safari (by Apple) or Firefox (by Mozilla) are both included on your Mac. Try them both out and pick your favorite as the default browser.
Put your favorite in the Dock, and remove the other. Also, set the default browser in Safari > Preferences > General.
Microsoft Office
This suite of applications is located in the Applications folder.
System Preferences
System Preferences is where you change many of your computer’s settings. Anything with a lock requires your Tech Para's password to make changes.
One you can change:
Desktop and Screen Saver – You can change your desktop background picture and screen saver behavior in this panel
Other Applications
Other applications on your Mac can be found in the Applications folder. Among them are the following:
iTunes – This program allows you to store and play digital music files, including MP3s, AACs and many other formats. It also includes Internet Radio stations.
iPhoto – This program allows you to manage your digital photo collection, make web pages, slide shows and more.
Turn your Mac off
To turn your Mac off completely, choose Shut Down from the Apple menu, or press the Power key and then click Shut Down.
Additional Resources
Review the Help within Mac OS X
The operating system has its own searchable help system. Click on Help > Mac Help on the Menu Bar to access it, or just click on Help and then use the search box to find the information you need.
Review Online Macintosh Help
Mac 101 – If you’re just getting started with the Mac, this is a great resource to check out. The easy-to-understand website covers everything from a basic tour to detailed troubleshooting tips. (Some screenshots included with this documentation came from Mac 101.)
Consult Atomic Learning
Atomic Learning is a provider of web-based software training videos and resources.
Contact your building Tech Para or the Technology Help Desk
Call x5100
Thanks to Luther College for much of the content of this page and for publishing it under a CC license.
This is a basic introduction to the Apple operating system Mac OS X.
Goals
Upon completion of this training, you will be able to:Training
Turn your Mac on
To turn your Mac on, press the power button. The power button looks like this:image source:
On an iMac, the power button is located on the back of the computer. On a MacBook, it is on the top right of the keyboard.
Once your computer turns on, you will see an Apple logo. After a while, you will be presented with the login window.
Log in
To log in, click your username. Then type your password and click Log In (or press Enter). After a moment you will see the Desktop.The Desktop
The Desktop is the name for what you see on your screen right now: the menu bar at the top, the Dock at the bottom and various icons in between.The Desktop can also mean the actual folder stored at /Users/yourname/Desktop, which contains the icons you see on your screen.
The Dock
The Dock, located at the bottom of your screen, is intended to be a shortcut to the Finder and your most frequently used applications, folders and files.On the left side of the Dock is the Finder (blue smiling icon) and applications. (more on that later)
On the right side of the Dock is the Trash and a place to store your favorite documents and locations.
The Menu Bar
The menu bar is located at the top of your screen and is a typical place to perform actions in various applications. The menu bar contains menus for the active application. The menu bar also contains a few icons on its right side that represent menus for other features on your Mac, such as Spotlight and sound volume.- Apple Menu– The Apple Menu, located in the upper-left corner of the screen contains many frequently used commands and actions.
- System Preferences – Using System Preferences you can let your Mac know how you prefer to work. This is done through preferences.
- Recent Items – Recent Items stores your 10 most recently used applications, documents and network locations for easy access.
- Force Quit – If an application freezes, you can often force it to quit using this item. You will lose any unsaved work. Click and hold the frozen application icon; you will then be prompted to select “force quit.”
- Sleep - Puts your computer into a low-power mode but does not turn off your computer. Waking your computer from sleep is much faster than turning on from a shut down’; you can get back to your work faster if you use sleep mode. However, the computer still uses some power in this mode.
- Log Out - Closes all applications and takes you back to the login window. This prevents anybody from tampering with your files while you are gone.
- Shut Down Turns your computer completely off.
- Restart Turns your computer off then back on again. Often, a restart is necessary after installing system software updates or major applications.
- Application Menu – The Application menu displays the name of the application you are currently in. When no other applications are open (or if you've clicked outside the application), for instance, it says Finder – The Finder lets you organize, view and access practically everything on your Mac including applications, files, folders, discs, SD memory cards and shared drives on your network.
- File – In most applications the file menu contains commands to open, close, save and print documents
Save (1st time saving and naming something) vs. Save As (saving an altered version of something while keeping the original)Status menus to note
The status menus are small icons on the right-hand side of the menu bar.McAfee
This red shield icon shows that you have anti-virus software running
Home Sync
For use with a Mobile Account - talk to your Tech person about this one
Binoculars
These change when someone from the tech office is accessing your computer (ie, to walk you through an answer or a fix)
Display Settings
Changes the way your display looks
Bluetooth
For connecting to Bluetooth devices
AirPort
Shows your connection to wireless networks and the strength of your signal
Volume
This menu allows you to adjust the volume of your Mac’s speakers.
Battery
Can show percentage left or time remaining
Clock
The clock displays the current time. Click for the date.
Spotlight
The magnifying glass icon allows you to search your entire computer for various files and information. Simply click on the icon and type what you’re looking for. It will search many different kinds of files and present you with the most relevant results. Very helpful when you can't remember where you saved something!
Application Tour
Now let’s go on a brief tour of the applications in your Dock, at the bottom of the screen. We will start with the Finder on the left side.Finder
The Finder is the application that allows you to deal directly with files, folders, CDs, network volumes and the icons on the Desktop. To open a Finder window, click on the Finder icon in the Dock.
Parts of a window
The Finder window also contains these items:
Other Places of Interest in the Finder
Safari or Firefox
Safari (by Apple) or Firefox (by Mozilla) are both included on your Mac. Try them both out and pick your favorite as the default browser.Put your favorite in the Dock, and remove the other. Also, set the default browser in Safari > Preferences > General.
Microsoft Office
This suite of applications is located in the Applications folder.System Preferences
System Preferences is where you change many of your computer’s settings. Anything with a lock requires your Tech Para's password to make changes.
One you can change:
Other Applications
Other applications on your Mac can be found in the Applications folder. Among them are the following:
Turn your Mac off
To turn your Mac off completely, choose Shut Down from the Apple menu, or press the Power key and then click Shut Down.Additional Resources
Review the Help within Mac OS X
The operating system has its own searchable help system. Click on Help > Mac Help on the Menu Bar to access it, or just click on Help and then use the search box to find the information you need.Review Online Macintosh Help
Mac 101 – If you’re just getting started with the Mac, this is a great resource to check out. The easy-to-understand website covers everything from a basic tour to detailed troubleshooting tips. (Some screenshots included with this documentation came from Mac 101.)Consult Atomic Learning
Atomic Learning is a provider of web-based software training videos and resources.Contact your building Tech Para or the Technology Help Desk
Thanks to Luther College for much of the content of this page and for publishing it under a CC license.